


Bracelets of Fortune

by Spacewhalewriting



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 1930s wizarding word, Cursed Object, F/M, Harry Potter - Freeform, Hogwarts Inter-House Relationships, Magical Bond, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Multi, Pre-Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Ravenclaw & Slytherin Inter-House Friendships, Reincarnation, Wizarding Culture (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:53:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23994808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spacewhalewriting/pseuds/Spacewhalewriting
Summary: 1930s, depression era Hogwarts: Alice Edwards, a halfblood girl from Cardiff with no connection to her wizarding heritage, discovers love and her true self at Hogwarts. A pact is made and house boundaries are crossed for the sake of a love for the ages.1970s, Marauders era Hogwarts: Alice's granddaughter, Dylan Edwards is attending Hogwarts. Muggleborn Will Harlan doesn't know who he is, but he thinks he may be someone to her.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character, gryffindor/gryffindor, slytherin/ravenclaw - Relationship
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	1. The Letter

_Cardiff, Summer 1932_

“I just don’t know how I’m going to keep you.”

She’d said it before. There was no man to take care of them, just the two of them, Emma and Alice. Alice’s father and Emma’s husband had died in a mine collapse when she was three years old and Emma had taken a job as a laundress, but in 1929 the nation had fallen into the Great Slump and she could hardly feed the two of them on that money. Alice was the spitting image of her father, gingery blonde and spindly from her growing years interrupted by the slump. Potatoes were a staple, and eggs when they could get them, but feeding a growing girl was near beyond Emma some days, no matter how she did her best.

For that reason, Alice did not understand her mother’s reaction to the cat with the strange markings. Like spectacles, almost, little dark rings around the eyes. Her mother told her not to talk to the cat, but the woman regardless came the next day. The two women stood in the doorway, her short brown haired mother with her round, ruddy face, and the tall, severe woman with a pair of dainty spectacles perched on the end of her long nose.

“Emmaline.” Said the strange woman. Who was she? Alice was short for her age and this woman seemed impossibly tall, with just a hint of strangeness that seemed to surround her like a perfume.

“Minerva.” Said Emma, nervously twisting her chapped hands in her apron. “I suppose you’re here about the girl. She only turned eleven a week ago.” She said, almost accusingly. Alice didn’t speak out of turn just yet, but she did wonder if this was finally it. Her mother was selling her to be a maid for some rich Scottish woman because she simply couldn’t afford to feed a hungry girl any more.

“May I come in, Emmaline? It might be best to have a sit down.” Said Minerva gently. Alice was shy of strangers but wasn’t hiding herself by any means and Minerva could clearly see over Emma’s shoulders and so spotted her. What eyes she had, bright almost like some animal. With some clucking, Emma let her in, gesturing that she should sit at their little kitchen table and also reaching for Alice to come to her. She sat and Alice stood leaning against her mother, Emma’s hands gripping her arms nervously. Minerva peered at her over the tops of her spectacles, smiling kindly at Alice. “Now,” She said, “You look just like him, don’t you?”

“God’s spittin’ image.” Said Alice. Emma’s hands tightened on her and she knew that it was rude, but it was what Emma said herself and it had just come out. An amused huff of air passed out of Minerva’s nose that could not be rightfully called a laugh. She reached into the pocket of her oddly styled dress and pulled out an envelope.

“I trust you know how to read, Alice?” She asked. Alice nodded. “My name is Minerva McGonogall and I am a teacher at a very special school for little girls and boys like you.” So her mother wasn’t selling her. Her heart did a funny little flop. A special school hardly sounded like a place Emma could afford to send her. “You don’t need to worry about paying for this school. Your father went there when he was your age and so your name has been down to go since you were born.” And moreover, what made her and her father so special? They’d been coal mining folk for generations, had no money or blood ties to gentry. Her confusion must have shown on her face because Minerva handed her the letter. “Perhaps this can best explain.”

It was heavy linen paper sealed with a crest in scarlet wax. Alice broke the seal with her thumbnail and opened the letter, reading aloud.

“Addressed to a Miss Alice Edwards, small brown house, Beaker street, Cardiff, Whales. Dear Miss Alice, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hog-warts school of witchcraft and...wizardry.” She stopped there, feeling that suddenly Minerva’s eyes could see right through her and to her biggest secrets. The broken body of a rabbit flashed before her eyes. It had come alive in her hands and Emma had told her to never tell a soul, especially anyone at church. It had a name. “It’s witchcraft?” She didn’t know how to feel, a kind of almost disorienting wave emotions of washing over her. She was staring at the letter, but her head snapped up. “My father was a wizard?”

Emma clucked in a disapproving way, letting go of her arms and fussing instead with her handkerchief in her lap. Minerva adjusted her spectacles.

“Henry was a wizard, yes, and....one of my friends when I went to Hogwarts.” Said Minerva.

“Then how come he died, if he was magic?” Asked Alice. Emma stifled a little noise in her kerchief, shaking her head. Minerva pursed her lips and she knew that she’d asked a difficult question but Alice was full of questions and despite trying to be polite, the big ones came pouring out regardless of propriety.

“There are some things that magic can do, and some things that it cannot. You will learn all about this at Hogwarts.”

“What _can_ magic do?” Alice asked. Another big question, though less full of wonder and more calculating. The cogs in her head were turning. Minevera paused for a second and then her body seemed to shimmer and melt and there was the cat with the strange markings around its eyes. It blinked at her and then Minerva sat there once more. The cat had been around days before Minerva the woman had shown up.

“You won’t get into human transfiguration until your fifth year, but that is an example of what magic _can_ do.” She said. The cogs in Alice’s head started spinning like whirligigs. She would have to be stupid not to go to Hogwarts, absolutely stupid.

“Mum?? Please, can I go??” She begged Emma. Emma looked defeated, nearly trembling.

“I suppose.”

“Everything you need to know for now is in that letter. Your list of supplies is in there as well.” Said Minerva, brisk now that it had been settled. Alice shuffled through the papers and found the list. There were a lot of things on there that she had no idea where to find.

“Where do we....” She began, but trailed off. She couldn’t imagine where to get half of these things. A wand? Where did you get a _wand_?

“Before the school year starts I will be escorting you to Diagon Alley in London and we will procure all of your school supplies with a special fund provided by the school’s governors.” Minerva clarified.

“When do we start?” Asked Alice.

__________________________________

“You be good and do everything Mrs. McGonagall tells you, and don’t get lost because I cannot come and find you where you’re going. I’m not allowed.” Said Emma, one morning several weeks after that day. Alice was in her best smock dress, one of two she owned, the one she wore to church. It was blue, with a pattern of flowers, and was almost a grown up dress; it went to right below her knees and had a little shirt collar just like her mother’s dresses.

“Take my hand, we will be traveling very quickly.” Minerva said. She was standing in their little kitchen in her richly colored, robelike dress, looking again very out of place. Alice took her hand and Minerva addressed Emma. “Dinnae you worry, Emmaline, I’ll have her back by supper.” Alice wondered for a moment- London was more than a day’s travel away. Would they be taking a train? “Spin with me and hold on tight, Alice.” Minerva said and she gave in unquestioningly and spun with her.

All went dark and for a moment she felt like she was in a tunnel of wind, black and howling, whipping the very breath from her chest. She could very vividly feel her own fingers and she made use of them, gripping Minerva’s robes and hand very tightly so she would not be lost. Color and breath came back in a whirl and they were on a busy city street that Alice could only assume was London. Her feet were with her again but she had to take a second to get her bearings as her fingers were locked into the woman’s green robes and her stomach was churning as if it were still spinning. Once she pried herself from Minerva she stumbled towards the closest building and retched, but she hadn’t had anything for breakfast and nothing came up so she leaned there for a moment catching her breath and boxing with her stomach’s desire to turn inside out.

“That tends to happen your first time, but I thought it would be faster to apparate.” Said Minerva. “Take your time.” Alice shook her head and wiped a little bit of sweat from her trembling brow, waving the suggestion away.

“I’m okay, I think. D-did nobody see us?” She asked. It seemed very unlikely that two people could appear suddenly from thin air on a busy London street and nobody would bat an eye, and yet.

“They see what they expect to see.” Minerva said simply. Alice noted that they were standing outside a rather shabby pub with a sign that said “The Leaky Cauldron”. People’s eyes seemed to slide across the front of the pub and land on the stores on either side, but nobody really paid attention to the Leaky Cauldron. They went inside. It was dim but clean and the barman stood wiping glasses. There were a few patrons inside, and they all wore these kind of long robes similar to the way Minerva was dressed. Wanting to not feel as out of place as she did, Alice nodded seriously at the barman and he nodded back, a slow smile spreading across his face as he recognized a new hogwarts student. She followed Minerva through the pub and to the alleyway where they were confronted with a stack of bottle crates and a blank brick wall.

Minerva whipped what Alice could only assume was a wand from her robes and tapped at the wall, businesslike, and as if wilting under her stern gaze it shimmered away and they stood at the entrance of a narrow row of shops positively bustling with activity. Minerva did not offer her hand this time but Alice took it regardless, mouth agape. She’d never been to a carnival but she assumed that Diagon Alley was very close to what it would be like. Cardiff wasn’t the most prosperous of places over the last few years, but never had Alice seen so much color and so many impossible things. Owls in cages in the window of the post office, a shop that sold books on magical subjects, advertisements and posters on the walls that moved as if they were alive. Some people were wearing regular clothes like hers, but most of them wore long, sweeping robes like Minerva.

She wanted to stop and stare at everything, _everything_ , but Minerva had a list and it turned out that nothing would stop this whirlwind of efficiency. They went to the apothecary first and Alice was immediately distracted by a barrel of what looked like some sort of shimmering, multicolored frog’s egg jelly and had to be called _twice_ before she could tear herself away. Minerva arranged for their packages to be delivered to the Leaky Cauldron at the end of the afternoon and they moved on to Madame Malkin’s, which was the shop where she was to be fitted for her school clothing.

“Why do witches dress so differently than everybody else?” Alice asked as the a tape measure began taking her measurements unpropelled by human hand. It nudged her arm and she lifted them so it could measure her sleeve length.

“Traditions die hard in the wizarding world. Witch fashion changes as the muggle fashions do, but it changes independent of them.”

“Muggle?” Alice asked, emerging with her hair pale and wild as a black robe was pulled over her head.

“Non magical folk are called ‘muggles’”

“So my mum’s a muggle?”

“Correct. A moment, I need to discuss something with Madame Malkin.” Said Minerva, sweeping to the front of the shop where the proprietor was engaged at the register.

“Little girl.” Someone said. Alice looked around and it was the girl of about sixteen close to her in the little shop, with silky black hair and a dark stare that gave Alice nothing. “That’s not something you want to be announcing in public.” The girl said, then looked her up and down in her blue dress. “And you might want to wear those robes out. Your...clothes are rather loud after all.” Alice didn’t comprehend entirely what was going on until the only other school aged person in the shop jumped in. A boy about her age with jet black hair and a broad nose, sneering at the older girl.

“Oh, and being pureblood is soooo great, with all the inbreeding.” He said. The girl scoffed.

“What does _your_ father do? Mine works in a very valuable department of the ministry.” She asked. There was an air about the way she said this that he was very important and therefore she was.

“My dad.” He said, hesitating before finding footing again. “My dad tames dragons in the Sahara.” He said, puffing out his skinny chest. The girl’s eyes darted from his face to the woman who was with him. She was dressed modestly but fashionably in muggle clothing, currently tied up speaking with a saleswitch. The cogs seemed to be turning in the girl’s head.

“You’re....not old Accipidus’s grandson, are you?” She asked, her black eyes suddenly alight. The effect did not make her prettier, but rather a little crueler. She covered her mouth as if hiding a pitying smile. “Oh, we were all so sorry to hear about your mother’s marriage. She could have done so well for herself, but...well...I suppose you mudbloods have to stick together.”

Alice didn’t comprehend the slur but now fully understood that they were being bullied and she felt rage start to boil up in her, starting hot in her gut. The boy had come forward to defend her, and so she did the same in a show of solidarity, with every ounce of her Cardiff working class spirit.

“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size, you bloody pill?” She said, and forgetting that she was with a professor from her school and in full view of several adults, she balled up her fists and not knowing the consequences, let her emotions fly out. There was a crack in the air like the snap of a whip and the black haired girl crumpled sideways with a look of utter surprise and let out a wail that shook the whole shop. Immediately the adults converged on that spot, the girls mother got there first to shriek and dive onto the floor to retrieve her daughter, followed by Minerva and the proprietor. Alice had no idea what she had just done or how, but she knew that somehow she’d done it and she was in for it.

“I-I don’t know what happened!” She pointed at the girl on the floor in a panic. “She said- she said we had muddy blood!”

“Those aren’t the words she used.” Said the boy, grimly. Minerva’s voice went stern and cold, turning on the girl and her mother. She passed her wand over the girl’s knee.

“ _Sana confractus_.” She said. The girl gasped and the tears stopped flowing, but she didn’t get up, quailing under Minverva’s icy gaze. “Is that true?” She asked.

“Y...yes.”

“Elaine!” Exclaimed the girl’s mother, shamefaced.

“Well then.” Minerva sniffed savagely, standing and clasping her hands primly. “I suppose the punishment fit the crime, then, didn’t it?” She swept by and collected Alice, taking her with her. “Come along, Alice. Madame, we will be having those delivered to the Leaky Cauldron. Thank you.”


	2. A Family Heirloom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Alice gets a scolding for her wicked ways. Introducing Emmett and Sebastian

Alice thought she might be getting off scott free for her outburst, but Minerva let her know otherwise. She didn’t seem angry and frightened the way Emma might be, but her coldness had yet to wear off and her voice was stern enough to tell Alice that she best heed her words.

“No witch or wizard needs a wand to perform magic.” Minerva began. “But that does not mean that we should not learn to control it or channel it in appropriate ways. This time, I don’t....supposed I really have to tell Emmaline about this...” Her voice went stern again, “But you mustn’t have a repeat of that at Hogwarts. You cannae get into fights with other students.”  
  
“That word she used...was it a very bad one?” Alice asked, prepared to lawyer her way out of punishment.

“The worst. And she had no right to be using it. Wizards have been intermarrying with muggles for centuries to keep from dying out. The more ingredients in a soup, I suppose.”

“So I’m not allowed to slug people who call me that, even accidentally?”  
  
“Well....” There was a sharp glint in Minerva’s eye. “When you’re at Hogwarts you will be sorted into houses that will be like your family while you are at Hogwarts. Academic triumphs can earn your house points, and transgressions lose house points. It will all be explained on your first night, but you would do well not to lose your house points. Magic is to be used in the classroom only, and you cannae do it at home. These rules apply to bullies as well.” She pulled up short at a dimly lit little shop with frosty windows and a sign over the door that read ‘Olivanders’. “Well now, the most important thing you can have for learning to control your magic is a wand, isn’t it?” She opened the door and swept in, ringing a bell on the dusty counter. A man so pale he might as well have been translucent breezed into the room like a ghost. He seemed to light up when he saw Alice standing there with her delicate little girl hands on the counter, waiting.

“Ahh, Hogwarts?” He asked. His eyes swept her muggle clothing but unlike the girl there was no judgment in them, just a kind of misty nostalgia. “First time in Diagon Alley?” She nodded.

“I’m here for a wand, please, sir.” She said, taking pains to be polite, as she seemed to be on Minerva’s naughty list for now. He chuckled like a brook, whipping around and heading into the stacks of wands.

“Wonderful little girl, so polite. I think....Yes, I think perhaps...” He pulled a long box out from about eye level. “Applewood, sweet but cunning. Unicorn hair, leaning towards lighter magics, useful for household spells.” He said, removing it from the box and handing it to her. She gripped it and held it up and gave it an experimental wave in no particular direction. The proprietor’s dandelion hair went up in flames. Alarmed, he snatched the wand back, grabbing a rag from the counter and clapping it to his head to tamp them out before he lost his hair. “Apparently not.” He said, smoking a little. He turned his back to her, rubbing the white stubble on his lip and mumbling to himself. She could catch bits here and there. “Perhaps the opposite...work our way through the spectrum....furthest thing should...” He pulled a box from somewhere near knee level and whipped the wand out. “Thirteen inches, Aspen, Dragon Heartstring. Very stubborn wand. Good for dueling. A favorite of...” He paused and grinned, “Revolutionaries.” He stared very hard at her as if trying to see through her before handing her the wand.

It was a wand of the purest white, inlaid with knotwork that terminated in vines, and when she waved it there was the tinkling of a little bell and a gentle breeze sprang up, white anenome petals borne along it to tumble across the register counter. The wind died as quickly as it had come, but there still lingered the sweet smell of fresh hay. Alice looked back to see Minerva pinching the bridge of her nose. Olivander seemed quite pleased.

“Very well. Let’s be done with it.” Said Minerva, paying for the wand. This package Alice asked quite politely and softly, if she could carry in its parcel, and she was allowed to. So she wasn’t allowed to use it outside lessons, but what those lessons might bring! She had never really owned much, and never anything as beautiful as this wand. It was immediately her most expensive and most precious object, to be doted over and cared for like a living thing. She hadn’t yet done voluntary magic with it, but she found herself feeling as if she were bonding to the wand as she walked with it through Diagon Alley. Yes, they would be fast and consummate friends.

Next they went to a bookshop filled with teetering towers of books. It was quite crowded and for a moment Alice thought she saw that same boy from the robes shop talking to another boy. When his gaze wandered in her direction she lifted a hand and waved and he promptly dropped the stack of books he was holding. He dove to scramble for them but Minerva was moving her along briskly and she lost sight of him again. He seemed her age, maybe he was going to Hogwarts too.

________________________________

“Emmett, there you are! Look at those books, you think you’re behind the grind already, you old ambercrombie?”

The boy with the jet black hair tottered with a pile of newly purchased school books that went from his fingertips to his chest. His attacker was shorter by a good few inches and round, a sandy haired boy wearing brown robes with tweed patches on the elbows. Emmett shook his friend off with on elbow.

“Don’t blow your wig, Sebastian, I saw you two days ago.” He said. Then suddenly he remembered, nearly dropping his books. “Bast! Bast, I’ve gotta tell you about this dame....” He said. He whistled under his breath, his eyebrows going up. When he’d seen her she’d been a girl, but by the time they’d parted she’d been a dame. “A girl in the shop called her a...you know what, and she...” He looked around for his parents before leaning in and continuing in a staccato voice, “She broke her leg without using a wand.”

“What? No...Really? An ‘m’ word?” Asked Sebastian, his voice a rollercoaster of surprise, disbelief, and then sneaking admiration and then surprise again. Emmett had been sweeping the crowd with his eyes kind of absent mindedly and with a shock, caught the eyes of the very girl he’d been telling him about. catching his gaze, she smiled and raised her hand to wave; she was gone in the next second, but a second was all Emmett had needed to let the surprise clumsy his fingers and there went his books again.

“There! Did you see her?” He asked, clutching his books to his chest, now askew.

“The ginger? A girl like that is a Gryffindor definitely.”

Emmett gazed into the distance for a second, dreams of nameless valors running through his head.

“You think I’m brave enough to get into Gryffindor?” He asked, a little foggily. Sebastian patted him on the back, nearly knocking the books in his hands to the ground again.

“Sure, fella, you go for it. Hey, I hear you take a blood oath to the founders when you get there, and that first years are the ones who clean the toilets.” Sebastian said. Emmett stared at him, brow furrowing doubtfully.

“Why would you take a blood oath to the founders? Aren’t they dead?”

“Beats me.” Said Sebastian, shrugging.

“I’m beginning to question your sources for this, Bast.” Said Emmett.

____________________________________

Several weeks later:

Hardly able to sleep, Alice had awoken early only to find that Emma was already up and in the kitchen boiling an egg for the each of them.

“Sit down, teas in the kettle. Bread’s on the table.” She said. “Eat quickly, Minerva will be here anytime to take you to London.” She bustled about with her back to Alice for a little while so she reached for the food on the table, sinking her teeth into a slice of good homemade white bread. Her stomach was alive with butterflies. Would they travel again instantly to London, in that way that made her dizzy? Emma had cracked and peeled the eggs and she came over with one in a bowl for her. “I thought...since it’s such a big day and all. And you’ll be gone all school year, you’ll want something to remember your old mum by.”

She reached into her apron took out a little flat wood box, crouching down to be on Alice’s sitting level and giving it to her. Opening it, Alice gave a little gasp. It was her mother’s bracelet, a gold chain with tiny enamel violets hanging from it all around. She wore it to church and special occasions, a memory of better days gone by given to her by Henry. It was one of the few family heirlooms they had left, and the loveliest little thing Alice had ever seen.

“Oh, mum!” She said, surprised and pleased. Emma took it out of the box and opened the clasp for her, skipping a few links so it would fit her birdlike wrist.

“Now don’t you go losing it, or I’ll have your hide.” She said, putting her hands on Alice’s shoulders and holding her at arm’s length as if to get one good last look at her.

“Thank you, mum.” Said Alice. She held up her wrist and jangled it a little.

“My sweet girl, make me proud.” Said Emma, pulling her into a hug. It struck Alice then that she was leaving her mother for quite a while, and they had never really been separated for more than a day.


	3. The Hogwarts Express

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Alice meets Emmett again; bonus, Sebastian too

Alice didn’t vomit this time, and she didn’t have enough time to even consider the roughness of the several second journey from Cardiff to King’s Cross in London, swept along with Minerva’s business-like stride. She had her trunk with all her school supplies and was wearing the uniform blouse and skirt but not yet the robes that went over them, trying to be prepared but at the same time blend in with the packs of muggles that crowded King’s Cross. As Alice jogged to keep up with her little luggage cart, Minerva checked a time piece that was in her pocket, halting in between platforms nine and ten.

“Alright, best to take it at a run. Right into the wall there. It’ll take you to the correct platform.” Minerva said.

Alice looked at her ticket. It read “Platform 9 3/4”. She looked at platform nine and then platform ten and then at Minerva.

“Right at the wall.” She confirmed. Minerva nodded.

“I have other students to fetch, so I’ll leave you on the platform. Let’s get you there in a timely fashion.” She said, not impatient but definitely crisp under her schedule, gesturing towards the wall. Alice clenched her hands tightly on the bar of the trolley, thinking about the amazing things that she’d seen in Diagon Alley and how it was real, all real- and she broke into a jog heading towards the brick wall. Her palms slipped a little with sweat and just as she was about to crash into it she closed her eyes tightly.

The light beyond her eyelids changed and she opened them to find that she was on an entirely new platform with a gleaming scarlet and black engine spouting a ribbon of steam. The people around her were wearing a mix of muggle clothing and wizard’s robes, and all the school aged children had trunks and parcels and cages with owls. The sign above her head read “Platform 9 3/4”. She marveled for a moment before pushing her little trolley down the platform towards the end of the train. She was in entirely alien territory, but it was hers now and she would navigate it bravely if it was the last thing she did. There were several hours before the train was to leave so she boarded near the back, finding an empty compartment. She was doggedly but poorly attempting to lift her trunk into the luggage rack in the compartment when a fifth year boy with a shiny badge passed by and caught her before she dropped the entirety of her trunk on top of herself. She thanked him and he moved on, so she settled in by the window and pulled out her wand.

It was a lovely thing, a bright white wood that came to a long tapered tip. She was inspecting it and thinking about pulling out a textbook to see what she was up against when the door to the compartment slid open. It was the same black haired boy from Diagon Alley, followed by a round blonde boy already in his school robes.

“Hi. Can we sit with you?” He said.

“Oh! Hello.” She said, brightening. Had it been two strangers that might have been fine, but this boy was familiar and she welcomed seeing him.

“I’m Emmet, Emmet Accipidus” He said.

“Alice Edwards.”

“I’m Sebastian Clericus, pleasure to meet you, lovely dame.” Sebastian said, making a dapper little bow and offering his hand. Politely she took it and he made a show of kissing her hand while Emmett looked uncomfortable but unwilling to stop it. Finally he dragged Sebastian into the seat across from Alice and sat down on the window side.

“It’s very pretty. Your wand.” He said, noting that she still was holding it.

“Thank you. Mister Olivander said it was Aspen wood and a dragon heart string. I like it very much.” She said, twitching the tip in a commanding little arc. “Well, wands out, lets see yours.” she said, looking at the boys expectantly.

“Is it a measuring contest?” Asked Sebastian. He was ignored and both boys pulled out their wands. Emmet’s was as black as Alice’s was white, and Sebastian seemed crestfallen that his was stubbier than either of theirs. “Ah....I forgot what mine was. Oak? And Dragon? I think...” He said, trailing off.

“Mine’s ebony, 12 inches, with a unicorn hair core. My mum has a unicorn hair in hers too.” Supplied Emmett. He waved it vaguely and nothing happened. “She’s a whiz with charms and she taught me the incantations for some, do you want to see one?”

“Minerva said we’re not allowed to use magic outside of lessons.” Alice said, balking at being found out.

“Minerva?” Sebastian asked, stretching the word experimentally like gum in his mouth. “Minerva....” He pondered, then remembered suddenly. “McGonagall? You know Minerva McGonagall? She’s the transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts! My dad knows her. As in socially. I hear she’s engaged to a muggle, you know. Risky romance.”

“Why’s that so bad?” Asked Alice.

“It’s not!” Said Emmett, getting there first.

“Some folks, not us folks, think that if you’re not a pure blood, that somehow makes you more muggle than wizard and they frown upon it.” Said Sebastian. “It’s all very antiquated, but it’s a new decade.”

“It doesn’t mean anything. I’m half and I’m going to be top of the class, you just wait.” Said Emmett, doggedly.

“You’ll have to get there before I do.” Said Alice, matching his eagerness.

“Big dreams, big dreams.” Said Sebastian, throwing his arm around Emmett’s shoulder. “I’ll be focused on quidditch, so you two do that and I’ll be a star player. I’ll be fighting off girls left and right while you two bookworms are in the library, it’ll be dandy.” Of course, Alice had no idea what quidditch was or how it was played and they were so involved in this explanation that they jumped when the engine whistled, the pistons slowly engaging and pulling them out of the station. The conversation turned to the Hogwarts year ahead and what academics it might bring, but before they could get too deeply into it, a plump older witch with a cart slid the door to the compartment open and poked her head in.

“Would any of you like some sweets off the trolley, dears?” She asked, sweetly.

“Ah, about time for some food I think!” exclaimed Sebastian, putting his hands in the pockets of his robes and shaking them. Alice had no money but was eager to experience everything about this hidden world that she’d only just discovered and so she got up to inspect the offerings.

“Oh wow..!” She stood there almost overwhelmed, looking at all the kinds of sweets she’d never seen before. They had been on a mission in Diagon Alley, so she hadn’t had time to stop and explore the fact that wizard’s food was different than muggle food. She stared at the cart until the witch very kindly jogged her out of it.

“Are you alright?” The witch asked.

“I’ve never seen anything like these. What are....those?” Alice asked, pointing to a pile of what looked like hand pies.

“That’s alright Dearie, you’ll get used to it. They’re pumpkin pasties, would you like one?” Said the witch, smiling. Emmett dug eagerly into his pocket for some sickles.

“We’ll take three pumpkin pasties and three pumpkin juices, please.” He said, handing her the coins. Alice flushed to the roots of her blonde hair at being included in something as intimate as sharing food.

“No pastie for me, just a daily prophet, kind lady.” Said Sebastian. He nudged Alice with an elbow in the doorway, winking. “Contrary to popular belief, it’s all muscle.” Emmett receiving two hand pies, three ice cold glass bottles, and what looked like a newspaper, distributing them amongst the other two.

“Drinks all around then. Cheers.” Emmett said, clinking bottles with the other two as the witch went away and they settled back into their seats. The drinks were sweet and cold and the pasties were somehow still warm with a velvety pumpkin filling. Sebastian poured through the pages of the paper and then threw it to the side.

“Well, that’s all wet....nothing in there about the Caerphilly Catapults. I’ll be damned if they lose another season this year, but it’s likely to happen anyway.” He said.  
  
“Can I read this?” Asked Alice, pointing at the discarded paper.

“Have at it.” He said. She picked it up and inspected the articles and ads. It was nearly all nonsense to her, but a name jumped out at her.

“Who’s this Grindelwald?” She asked. Sebastian gripped his bottle of pumpkin juice tightly enough to turn his knuckles white despite the forced casualness of his voice.

“Oh...He’s...a dark wizard... bad news that one. He takes pureblood status very seriously, kills muggles for sport is what I hear.”

“He kills muggles?” She echoed. Suddenly she felt very attached to her wand. There were kind people like she’d discovered, but also people like the girl in the shop and Grindelwald that would be happy to see her and her mother dead. And her magic, she knew, was a defense against these people. The incident in the shop had been an accident, but if she could do that without a wand....She could certainly defend herself if she knew how to use one.

“Nothing we have to worry about!” interjected Emmett, his voice a little worried. “He’s been on the run for years.”

“I’m not worried.” Said Alice from behind the paper. If anything the addition of obstacles made her more and more determined by the minute to make something of herself that could rival and defeat thinking like that. She might not be a pure blood, but she was still a witch, and nothing was going to stop a witch.


	4. The Sorting Hat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: Alice sings the "I'm just a poor boy" part of Bohemian Rhapsody at the Hogwarts sorting feast

It wasn’t until nearly dinnertime that the train slowed down, causing the three children to rush to the window and peer out at the forest in the slowly dimming light. Sometime around lunch Alice and Emmett had thrown their school robes on over the base uniform, both feeling rather grown up for it, so they grabbed their trunks and lugged them out onto the platform to join the growing pile of luggage. In the whirl of students there came a call from the far side of the platform.

“First years, this way! First years down here!” An older wizard with an eyepatch and a beard was standing at the end of the platform with a lantern in hand. They followed him through a short patch of woods that led to a lake, and beyond the lake lay the castle basking in the sunset glow, it’s towers and halls lit golden with candle light. There was a fleet of little boats at the end of a dock and the wizard led them on, every first year’s eyes locked on the castle’s grand approach as they slid across the dark water. Off the boats and through the huge oak doors and into a grand entrance hall of stone. Waiting for them was Minerva, robed in green with a jaunty peasant feathered witch’s hat perched upon her head. Alice found herself jostled a little in the crowd, every eye fixed on the witch up front.

“Good evening, students.” Said Minerva. “In a few moments you will be led through these doors into the great hall where you will be sorted into your houses. The houses are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Each house has its merits, and while you are here your house will be like your family. You will eat with your house, sleep with your house, attend classes with your house, and share the triumphs of your house. You will be called in alphabetical order to be sorted.” She bustled from the bottom of the stairs to the entrance to the great hall, the great doors swinging open as she approached. Alice marveled at the grand architecture and sweeping arches, the wrought iron and glass windows. There was no ceiling between them and the grand night sky. She’d never seen so many stars. She was familiar with the queen, who lived in a palace, but never could she have imagined something as wonderful as this. Just overhead hovered a thousand lit candles, casting a warm glow across the four long tables and the older students already waiting there in their house colors. The first years filed up to a stool that had been set up in front of a long table full of what had to be teachers. The oldest, rattiest hat Alice had ever seen, a tattered wizards hat sat upon it and as a hush came over the hall, it opened its brim and began to sing.

“Oh you may not think I'm pretty,  
But don't judge on what you see,  
I'll eat myself if you can find  
A smarter hat than me.  
  
You can keep your bowlers black,  
Your top hats sleek and tall,  
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat  
And I can cap them all.  
  
There's nothing hidden in your head  
The Sorting Hat can't see,  
So try me on and I will tell you  
Where you ought to be.  
  
You might belong in Gryffindor,  
Where dwell the brave at heart,  
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry  
Set Gryffindors apart;  
  
You might belong in Hufflepuff,  
Where they are just and loyal,  
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true  
And unafraid of toil;  
  
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,  
if you've a ready mind,  
Where those of wit and learning,  
Will always find their kind;  
  
Or perhaps in Slytherin  
You'll make your real friends,  
Those cunning folks use any means  
To achieve their ends.  
  
So put me on! Don't be afraid!  
And don't get in a flap!  
You're in safe hands (though I have none)  
For I'm a Thinking Cap!”

The song ended and there was silence all but for a cough from somewhere in the hall. Minerva stepped forward with a parchment list, calling out the first name.

“Accipidus, Emmett!”

Emmett blanched, his collar suddenly too tight. Why was he first? He felt a squeeze and looked down, finding a white hand clasping his and that it was attached to Alice. He looked at her and she nodded, letting go. He tugged at his collar, nearly stumbling out of the crowd of first years and taking a seat on the stool as directed. Minerva lowered the sorting hat onto his head and it slipped over his eyes, temporarily blinding him. He was too paralyzed to move, feeling something shifting around in his mind. He felt it dig through boxes and flip through books, and then the hat spoke again.

“Ravenclaw!” It called. The hall broke into applause and Emmett, dazed, jogged to the table with blue ties. He looked back as he did so, trying to find Alice and Sebastian in the crowd, but they were lost for now. He found an empty spot next to a tall, thin fourth year with a mole and sat down, finding that if he craned he could just barely see the stool over the heads of the students. Two more names were called, a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff. before “Clericus, Sebastian” was called. He and Bastion were neighbors and thus has been friends since birth. What if...He strained his spine to see. ”Hufflepuff!”

Emmett slumped a little in his seat. He couldn’t believe it. He remembered what Sebastian had said about Alice and how she was a Gryffindor girl for sure. He strained in his seat again, half standing until he hear Alice’s name being called.

___________________________

Alice separated herself from the crowd with her head held high, sitting on the stool with her spine very straight as she gazed out over the sea of students. As the hat was lowered onto her head she found herself chewing on the inside of her cheek. She didn’t know what to expect, but certainly not this shuffling sensation, as if she were a deck of cards, or many many books all being read at once. And then a strange little voice that was certainly not her own spoke up, like that of a wheezy old man.

_You’re a difficult one....Bold, and hungry to learn, hungry to prove yourself...that kind of ambition is a fearful tool, as powerful as any wand._

She closed her eyes very tightly as she listened to this little voice. _I want to be the greatest witch there ever was_. She thought hard, focusing on her goal and trusting in the hat.

_Yes, you could go quite far if given the right opportunities. Yes, I think...._

“Slytherin!” Shouted the hat. The whole hall had clapped for each first year, but she was the first to be sorted into Slytherin that year and their tabled _roared_ for her, stamping their feet and hollering for as much as they were worth. As she joined them it died down to make way for the next to be sorted, but she was met with grins and handshakes and murmured introductions to the people sitting immediately around her. The Slytherin table was next to the Ravenclaws so she searched for Emmett, finding him. He was looking at her, a sort of regret in his face.

 _See you tomorrow though?_ She mouthed, pointing to her eyes and then him and then the sky and waving her finger in a circle to mime all of this. His mouth shifted crookedly, smiling a little, then he nodded. They sat through the rest of the sorting and when it was done, an elegantly robed man with white hair and a short white beard stood from his seat at the center of the head table.

“And now. The Feast!” He said, raising his arms. Alice blinked and suddenly the golden platters were filled with food of every kind. Fragrant roast chicken and vegetables, steaming racks of lamb, steak and kidney pie glistening with gravy, cakes and puddings of all kinds, plump with raisins and creams. Alice lit up instantly, her stomach suddenly grumbling eagerly at the sight and smell of all this good food. This was the most plenty that she’d seen in a while.

After the feast was done and everyone was past the picking stage, the plates cleared themselves, disappearing into thin air as the food had appeared. Overhead the sky twinkled with a thousand stars, the night farther advanced than Alice was used to staying up. The same dark haired fifth year boy who had helped her with her trunk on the train led the exodus, calling for the slytherin first years to follow him. Alice marveled at the grandiosity of the stone halls and passages lit by torch, the many tapestries and paintings- paintings that waved and called out to them, some following their progress through the castle. She followed the flow of Slytherins through the castle and downwards, away from the great hall. They went down, down towards the dungeons and stopped at a stretch of bare wall between two carved sconces. Two snakes entwined held each torch.

“Hereditary.” He said, and at this password, the wall slid open, revealing a gentle, almost greenish glow. Alice followed the rest in, sticking close to the other first years, looking all around. The ceiling was high, the room furnished richly with green velvet couches and chairs. Every stone surface was carved, a huge fireplace on one wall crackling merrily away. But oh, the windows. Tall arched windows dominated the far wall, the main source of the light; they did not look out over the forest next to the school, but rather, under the water of the lake they had taken the boats over. There was movement beyond the windows, a dark shape flickering in and out of the length of their vision and Alice gasped, grabbing the sleeve of the first year girl next to her.

A human shape had floated into sight, a wild looking woman with bare breasts and green hair, her fish like tail swaying lazily in the water. The boy leading them had stopped to let the group file in, but now he turned, spotting the woman and smiling to reassure the alarmed first years who were murmuring amongst themselves.

“Those are the local merpeople.” He said, waving his hands to calm them. “They’re harmless and you can actually talk to them if you know standard British sign language. Welcome to the common room. Here you will spend free time with your house outside of classes. The dormitories are split so you share with the same year and gender. This is your family, and we are a tight knit community. Slytherin typically dominates the house cup; at the end of the year the house points are tallied and we almost always win. So study hard and achieve. But also...do not get caught rulebreaking. I mean to say....this does not exclude you from rule breaking....But if you do get caught, no snitching on other Slytherins.” There went up a light cheer from the older students in the back, three or four people. He waved them down. “Let’s make this another great year! It’s nearly lights out, to bed everyone!”

Alice found her way to her assigned dormitory and found a lofty room with four four poster beds and three other first year girls. There were ore windows to the lake, casting a glow through the stone room. Introductions were made and she found them friendly. There was Gertrude “Gilly” Smalls, a black haired girl with large luminous eyes, Harriet “Hattie” Levine, who despite wearing the same uniform seemed to exude a sense of fashionability with her romantic curls, and just Rose O’connor, who had freckles and a pert little Irish nose as her name suggested.

Alice’s trunk had been pulled up to the foot of one of the beds and so she took that one, changing into her night dress and laying out the next day’s robes so she could get an early start on classes. She felt so small crawling into the huge bed, lost amidst the sea of soft white sheets and pillows, settling down on the edge with the curtains open so she could watch a school of small fish lazily float by. They cast little round shadows on the stone floor, the light making shimmering ocean patterns on the floor. The breathing of the girls around her replaced the sound of her mother’s breathing, closing her eyes and drifting off into a land full of possibilities and wonder.


	5. A Day of Firsts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: First day of classes. A pact is made.

When Alice awoke the next morning, the light coming in from the windows wasn’t as deeply green as the night before, sparkling a few shades lighter. They must be under the lake but not far, or otherwise the source of light was as magical as the castle itself. She clambered out of her big bed, hair in a hazy strawberry blonde cloud around her head, and found that there was a green striped tie laid on top of the clothes that she had put out the night before. She remembered the house banners hanging over the tables the night before. Green and silver were the Slytherin colors. She dressed and left the tie hanging loose around her neck as she brushed her hair. She noticed the other girls dressing and primping and that there were several large mirrors in their room. She tried the girl with the tight waves and dark eyes first, having pinpointed her from London by her accent and assuredly up to date with fashion practices.

“Hattie, right?” She asked. Still in her bathrobe, Hattie nodded, passing a comb through her short silky hair. “Do you know how to tie these?” Hattie put the comb down on her bedside table and took both ends of the tie in her hands, crossing them and then pausing.

“Mm......” Hattie said, attempting a sort of wiggle and then looking over Alice’s shoulder to the girl still drowsing as she pulled on her robes. ”Gilly, do you know how to do a tie?” She asked. Gilly’s head emerged from her blouse, blinking her pale eyes at them owlishly.

“No, why?” She asked. Rose had her tie already done. She left off adjusting her slytherin green cap in the mirror and came to take charge of the situation.

“Och, I have three older brothers, give it here.” She said, moving Hattie aside and taking the tie.

“Three? Are they all in Slytherin?” asked Alice.

“Ones in Hufflepuff, but we don’t hold it against him. There you are.” She said, sliding the knot securely up and wiggling it a bit to adjust it.

“Oh, thank you.” Said Alice, inspecting the knot. The other girls were crowded around, both attempting to imitate her quick fingered knot and failing just as miserably as before.

“Oh, get in line, willye?” Rose said.

After ties were tied and hair was brushed and jewelry was put on, the girls ventured to the Great Hall. The castle was enormous, with many a passageway and hall, but as long as they kept going upwards the girls managed to make it to the ground floor, where they spotted some older students at the far end of a corridor and broke into a collective jog to follow them to the great hall. The older students turned a corner and it was just them in the corridor when suddenly an invisible force yanked the carpet under their feet, causing all four of the girls to go sprawling. A nasty, petty, high voice greeted them from thin air.

“Running in the castle, ickle wee firsties?? Somebody is breaking the RULES!”

Scrambling up, Alice dug into her robes and whipped out her wand, Rose following suit. Hattie was slower, as she was helping Gilly up.

“Who’s there?” Shouted Alice, standing with Rose protectively in front of Gilly and Hattie. She had no idea what an defensive spell looked like, but she felt safer with her wand in her hand. There was a

POP

And a little man in a bell topped jester’s hat appeared floating a good five feet off the ground. He giggled and zoomed around them in a circle, causing the girls to shriek and cover their heads as he pelted them with what seemed to be handfuls of dead beetles he was sourcing from nowhere.

“Listen, you, get out of here before I call a teacher!” Alice began, and she was rewarded with a face full of crunchy beetles before suddenly the little man jumped to nervous attention. It was the early fall so none of the girls expected the chill to fall over them. They didn’t hear him come up because there were no footsteps, only a breath of cold air as the ghost of a hollow eyed, blood stained man floated up the corridor behind them.

“Peeves...” He grated. “These are Slytherin first years...Leave my students alone.”

“Yes sir, Mister Baron Sir, left alone, sir, didn’t know they were yours, sir! Talleyhoo.” Said Peeves, his cap jangling as he saluted. He zoomed away like a balloon let go to spend its air, leaving the girls to stare at the Baron. Rose seemed to be mastering the situation as best as she could, but Gilly and Hattie were wide eyed and making themselves small. Alice was rooted to the spot but kept her wand grip tight; she wouldn’t show fear despite the fact that their savior was more terrifying than their attacker.

“Thank you, Mister Baron.” Said Alice, a little hesitantly. The other girls faintly echoed her and the Baron nodded and then continued to float past as if uninterrupted. Occasionally glancing behind them after him as they walked, they followed the long gone older students down the passage to the left and found themselves within hearing range of the chattering of the great hall. They followed the noise, trying to remember where they’d come from for future reference. The slytherin table was about half full of students but loaded with breakfast dishes that they could smell the moment they walked into the hall. Judging from the quality of food at Hogwarts, Alice was looking forward to getting slightly fat. She’d always been skinny, but the last few years that should have been growing years hadn’t had enough fuel to really happen and she’d stayed short and waifish. As they sat down in a row and tucked their book bags under the bench, Gilly was staring closely at Rose with her wide, luminous blue eyes.

“What are you doing, Gertrude.” Rose said, her patience thin in her voice as she tried to focus on loading her plate. Gilly plucked a dead beetle from Rose’s red hair.

“Do you think these have nutritive value?” She asked, mistily. Before any of the girls could answer, she popped it in her mouth and chewed, a ponderous expression on her face. Hattie gasped, but Alice only sighed.

“For pete’s sake there’s kippers right in front of you.” said Alice, knife in one hand and loaded fork already in the other.

“It’s protein.” said Gilly. Hattie was apoplectic, standing and grabbing dishes.

“Sausage.” Said Hattie, tilting a platter over Gilly’s plate and tipping a few onto it. “Toast.” She said, firmly, putting a piece on the plate. Gilly watched her exasperated friend load the plate, beaming once it was full of every hard to reach dish on the table.

“Thank you.” Gilly chirped, and began to delicately cut a sausage into pieces. Alice was struck with a suspicion that perhaps Gilly had had a plan from the very beginning. As Alice ate, she reached under the bench and pulled her schedule from her bag, having to try a few times to snap it open with one hand while her other was occupied with getting buttered toast to her mouth. She propped it up against a jug of milk, going over their shared list of classes between bites.

“First thing after breakfast it looks like Herbology, then lunch, Potions, dinner.” She read off, now shoveling fried potatoes into her mouth. Next was a glass of pumpkin juice. Glancing away from her schedule as she drank, she spotted Emmett come into the hall, adjusting his blue tie. He looked like he hadn’t had a wink of sleep but was utterly euphoric about it, his tawny hair sticking up in the back as if he’d rolled out of bed and come to breakfast without combing it. He looked for her for a second and when he found her he waved big, with his whole arm. Alice waved back, mouthing to him _schedule_ , as she waved hers in the air. The slytherins and ravenclaws had several classes together, as did the slytherins and Hufflepuffs, so the three of them would have plenty of time to spend together during the day, plus lunch.

______________________________________

It was early fall and the grounds were still green, a wet layer of dew on the misted grass as they walked to the greenhouses, their robes making snail trails in the silver grass. They had Herbology with the Gryffindors, all of the students crowding at the front of the greenhouse until the professor, a tall, thin witch with a head scarf and spectacles herded them inside and onto benches at a great long table filled with potted flowers.

“This lesson we’ll be discussing plants that, in a potion or on their own, aid in the breaking of enchantments. Turn to page five of your textbooks and follow along with me. If there are any questions, please raise your hand and we will discuss.” She said. As the lesson progressed they got their hands in the dirt. They were apparently allowed to swear loudly without repercussion if seized from behind by the venomous tentacula, which one of the Gryffindors was, two others coming to his aid to beat it back with their trowels. However, their primary purpose was the harvest the root and the flower of several dozen Moly plants in pots.

“Holy Moly.” Said Gilly, dreamily, as if she’d just thought of it and it had floated to her tongue unattached from her brain. Alice muffled her laughter by shoving the back of her arm into her mouth. Lunch came after Herbology and then it would be potions. When they arrived at the great hall for lunch Emmett was already at the Ravenclaw table. She waved cheerily, breaking from her group of girls. Rose called after her.

“Where are you going? You cannae sit with them, those are ravenclaws.” She said.

“And? Come with me.” Said Alice, walking towards Emmett. Gilly followed, and therefore so did Hattie, Rose coming last with a huff. As they got closer Emmett began to laugh.

“You’ve got dirt on your face.” He said and she lifted her hand questioningly. “Just there.” He said, touching his own forehead. She scrubbed it with her sleeve, noticing that she and the other girls were the center of attention all the sudden. It wasn’t just her, the ravenclaws in the immediate area around Emmett were glancing at them every chance that they got, not very surreptitiously. She flushed at the attention, trying hard to ignore them.

“Did you want to come with us and take some sandwiches to the grounds?” She asked. “I saw some of the older kids going down by the lake.” There was a mutter from the slytherin girls behind her.

“Can we do that?” asked Rose.

“I guess so, it’s not against the rules.” Said Hattie. Gilly was interacting with one of the bolder ravenclaw boys, having focused on lunch first.

“I hate ham, I’ll trade you for that egg salad.” She said.

_______________________________________

Slytherins and Ravenclaws had potions together so the mingled house group that had taken lunch together went down to the dungeons together.

“Do you want to share a table?” Alice asked Emmett.

“Yeah!” He said, squeezing the handle of his book bag a bit nervously and glancing at the ravenclaw boys around him. He separated himself from the group and they found a table near the front. Slughorn was already there, waiting for the two houses to file in. Once they were all seated, he smiled.

“Welcome, first years, to Potions! I am Professor Slughorn, head of Slytherin house and your potions master. If you have your wands out, please put them away. If everybody has their copy of _Magical Draughts and Potions_ , we will begin with chapter one, diving right in with a forgetfulness potion. Now, be careful with the finished product, don’t want anyone forgetting their way back to the common room.” He said, chuckling to himself. One person in the back laughed, but it was possibly a cough. “Now this is a simple brew, but some of the ingredients can be a bit dangerous. Don’t get any of the Lethe River water on you, as it is toxic. Lets all roll up our sleeves and have at it, shall we?” He finished.

Alice and Emmett shared the same book to save work space, using the two cauldrons on opposite sides of the little table. First came the water, which came in a jar and had cloudy little eddies in it the way alcohol does when mixed with another liquid. As she turned the heat up gently, she murmured to herself.

“ _Ave Maria, gratia plena_....”

There was some time sensitive work to do before it had to simmer for quite a while. Slughorn had been making rounds of the classroom and had caught her mutters, stopping at her station to look into her cauldron.“This potion doesn’t call for any incantations, Miss....?”

“Alice Edwards, sir. The recipe said low heat for twenty seconds before adding the crushed berries, I reckoned that’s about one and a half Hail Mary’s.”

“Hail Mary?” He repeated blankly.

“It’s a prayer.”

“My goodness, you’re in my house and you follow muggle customs, how interesting.” he said, peering at her as if she were a fascinating little beetle in a pinned collection. She stood tall under his gaze, not wanting to appear intimidated by her own head of house. Near the end of the class, he made rounds again to all the tables. “It’s about coming time now, students, your potion should be a viscous mauve color by now and have a smell reminiscent of minerals. You can turn off the heat now and step back so I can inspect the results!” He said with a cheerful flourish of his sleeves. Various smells and colored gasses were floating through the dungeon and not all of them were mineral-y. Emmett leaned over to whisper to her.

“What color’s mauve again?”

She was about to answer when Slughorn made his way over to their table, thumb hooked into the little timepiece pocket in his vest.

“Well, let’s see, this funny little mixed table here. A slytherin and a ravenclaw, how adorable! You must be good friends.” He said cheerfully. They shuffled a little, Emmett’s hands thrust into his pockets and Alice’s sleeves bunched into her hands nervously.

“Sir, our potions?” Said Emmett.

“Yes, yes, lets take a look.” He said, rubbing his hands together and picking up the iron spoon from where it was hooked on the edge of Alice’s cauldron, peering cautiously into it. “Is this your first potion?”

“Yes, sir, it is.”

“Nice mauve, good smell, right viscosity....I daresay if I tried this I would forget what grade to give you, young lady! Excellent job.” He said, beaming. “Wonderful.” She beamed and he moved on to Emmett’s cauldron, pausing for a little longer before stirring it. “More purple than mauve, but an excellent first try, Mister...?”

“Emmett Accipidus, sir.”

“Ah, old Merritt’s grandson? I thought the gift had skipped your mother, but no, she was disastrous until her fifth year or so before she started shining. Lets keep up the practice, shall we?” Said Slughorn. As they were packing their things, Emmett was quiet. Alice leaned over and whispered, bursting with curiosity.

“What’s he talking about, the gift skipped your mum?” She asked.

“My grandfather is a really famous potions maker. But it looks like you’re better than me at potions.” He said, a little bitterly.

“It’s just a recipe. Didn’t you ever learn how to make a stew or soda bread?” She asked. He shuffled awkwardly and then looked up, his hazel eyes serious.

“I have a lot riding on a family reputation and I don’t want to wait until my fifth year to get good. Will you help me in potions until I.....?” He trailed off, eyebrows twisted worriedly. She considered for a moment- not because she was unsure about helping Emmett, but because with the pressure of proving herself as a new witch with no experience, she hadn’t even thought about the pressure having a wizard family would put on Emmett to succeed.

“I’ll trade you, we’ll study together and you tutor me on what you’re good at and we’ll practice together on potions. Deal?” She asked, sticking out her hand. He clasped it and they shook once.


End file.
